Band of Wash

A Magic ring, made from the storm shards. It can transform the morality of a person and contain them until the world has forgotten them. In effect it renews a person after their own personal storm.

Full Item Description
This band is made from 15 tiny shards. The shards are side by side and bound into an irregularly shaped magic ring. It looks as though it were constructed from broken glass.
The ring emanates magic. Plant life within a half inch radius of the ring is forced through accelerated rebirth cycles. Grass will visibly rise, mature and perish, mold will grow and fall off, wood will rot. History
“Much has been written about the shards that have fallen. Noteworthy men - enough for whole textbooks - have sought them. What they have never realized is that not all shards are ancient - some shards have fallen recently; The last fell a 50 years ago!”
David, looked up at his grandfather with feigned amazement. His grandfather was by profession a storyteller, but in his age his voice had lost some of its charm, and his eyes had lost a great deal of their sparkle. David’s father had told him that his grandfather was once a famous bard, and had fought the great necromancer: mad Theodric.
“Don’t tell the shards stories, grandfather. Tell the story of the orcs and the Scarlet Scoundrel!”, David whined.
“Aah David, I would if I had time, I would tell you of ancient heros and treasures, and all the scarlet scoundrels adventures… but this is important David.”, David’s grandfather sighed, and looked into clear morning sky before shutting his ancient text. “David, your father, rest his soul, had a special task set out for him; but he’s gone to a better place, and that task will fall to you. These stories are important, David, important for you, and for everyone else that you know them.”
David’s grandfather opened the book again, and started thumbing the pages, looking for a place to begin. David picked at the dandelions near his feet, tearing them apart with his fingertips then tossing the stems and flowers into the air.
“The shards are not all ancient, their descent, like everything about them, mimics the storms. The evil ones came first, shards of foreboding, shards of darkness, shards of gathering turmoil. Then the shards of power came, elemental power, lightning, rain and water. The very last to fall were shards of good, renewal and light.”
David hated stories of ancient magic, he wanted to hear about brave warriors and evil sorcerers, those were his favorite. David’s grandfather studied David for a minute, and then stood up and spoke in a low voice.
“In my youth child there was an evil sorcerer, mad Theodric was his name, and his dark armies freely roamed and enslaved the tortured kingdom.”
As David’s grandfather spoke, dark clouds rolled in, and the storyteller grew taller and his voice boomed.
“The land cried out for heroes, boy. Myself, and Kilrey the dwarf and Lord Braniel, who would become king, answered the summons. We traveled the land fighting the evil until we conquered an audience with the madman himself.”
David knew how this story ended, even though his grandfather never told it. He had heard it from the practicing bards and song writers when we went to town.
“When we beheld the man we saw an ugly horrifying man, gross and deformed. He raged with anger and we fought him for hours… but we failed.”
David’s eyes opened wide, the heroes always defeated the necromancer as the other bards told it. His grandfather never lost.
“In truth David, we lost the fight. Kilrey was destroyed utterly, and I only survived by the Mad Theodrics healing power.”
“Thats not how it goes, you’re telling the story wrong!”, David protested.
“I’ve only told the story wrong once my boy - on purpose, mind you - others have retold it wrong since. This is the third time I’ve told this story, and I am telling it to you.”
The clouds had dispersed and David’s grandfather sat back down, as old and tired as ever.
“Mad Theodric was not mad with power, but with hate. He was a hideous man, and had been since birth. As a man of strong character and noble mind, and was driven to rage and hate by his mistreatment at the hands of his family and community.”
“It was these last shards - of the shards I’ve been telling you about at night, that he sought. The shards of renewal. They are quite singular: they ‘renew’ things. Not like a fountain of youth renews, it’s more subtle. The shards release anger and hope, and while it does its magic it holds you in trance. When the last memory of your life leaves the world, and there remains no one who knew you, then it releases you into the world, with a blank moral compass to create a new life for yourself.”
“It was Mad Theodrics wish to start again, to leave behind the pain and misery of his life. And we agreed to help him, for we pitied him and feared him so. The next years were awful, and we did terrible things to obtain those shards. We used our heroic reputations to find the shards, then we fought alongside the undead to obtain them! We wore macabre masks to protect our identities. I wish I had my own ring of renewal, so I could accept the screams of those years.”
David looked at his grandfather with renewed wonder. His grandfather said nothing for a long time, David was about to speak, but his grandfather continued his narration first.
“I shudder as I say this: the ends justified the means.”, His grandfathers face was grim. “We forged the ring from those shards, and Mad Thoedric put it on an fell into rest. May no one ever disturb that rest.”
“But before he put it on his boney finger, he made me swear an oath that for ten generations my family must watch over his idle self. We must never tell anyone that he lives still, and defend his form with our lives. It is best that no one ever takes the ring from his hands, if god be with us, then let that sleeping dog lie.”
Davids grandfather went back into the house, leaving a terrified David feeling exposed outside. David quickly followed his grandfather back inside. A strange and horrific idea entered David’s mind. He waited until his grandfather had fallen asleep at his chair, then he carefully took his grandfathers key from his belt, and snuck past him, up the stairs, and towards his mute brothers room. David had seen his brother only once or twice before, but was told to never disturb him . His father had said his brother Rafiel was very ill and could not speak or move.
He unlocked the door, and then David pushed open the door slowly. It creaked open into a dark room. Grabbing a nearby candle, David cupped the light to illuminate the far corner of the musty black room. The light barely touched the back, but David could see Rafiels pale eyes gleaming in the light, his face staring blankly from afar.
It took time for David to build his courage and step into the room and towards his brother. But David’s curiosity eventually overpowered his fear. As he crept towards the frozen figure, David lowered the candle to illuminate Rafiel’s hands.
And on the ring finger of the left hand, to David’s horror, was a ring of many shards. Magic/Cursed Properties
The ring puts the ring bearer into a trance like state for as long as it takes for them to be forgotten. While the person is in this state they’re morality is put into a neutral state.
The person will emerge from the rings domination with a new outlook in a future that has forgotten them. They will still remember what they’ve done, and what they’ve learned, but they will look upon their history with a blank moral canvas.
The process can be reversed by removing the ring before the transition is complete.
The ring does not protect the bearer from assault. They can be killed while wearing the ring, before the metamorphosis is complete. However this act has a chance of breaking the rings hold, or short-circuiting the process leaving the ring bearer mentally unstable.

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An absolutely stunning story wrapped in a bad name. I liked the presentation format of an oral tradition that reveals a dichotomy of the perceived story, and the real story. Kudos to you Wildcorn for the dark version of Le Morte de Arthur

If the name didn't make me think of a shard of the storm laundry tool, I would rate this higher, but as it is, 4 is all I can grant.

Some names are bad, but I've always found making up a name on the spot, no matter how terrible, is preferable to having a template name (INSERT NAME HERE). Simply because template names are hard to follow, and they are worse still.

Maybe I should start providing alternate names for my items? It wouldn't be unreasonable for a powerful artifact to have many names.

I am not yet voting on this because i am confused. How is this a shards of the storm quest item? The original post by siren no orakio said that thirteen shards fell from the sky, and that all of them had exactly the same properties aside from size, shape, and magnitude of effect.

These shards seem completely different from those.

This is a small (maybe more than small) pet peeve of mine, when itemse are called quest items, but they do not reflect the quest.

I agree Nobdy, and having had conversations with you regarding other submissions for the quest I can understand your take on this.

I voted on the sole purpose of the item itself not the fact that it was a submission item. I suppose I should of course vote regarding the content of the quest but I was more excited about the submission as a whole not a quest item. But I still agree with you.

I wouldn't say I've broken any rules, but I'll admit to having bent them.

To quote from "The Shards of the Storm" (http://www.strolen.com/content.php?node=411):
"Other combinations are possible, even likely. The shards may be fashioned as a part of any thing that contain their physical size, and each will grant the holder of that item a tiny fraction of divine power over the weather, as much dependant upon the holder as upon the fragment."

In my submissions I've tried to avoid the obvious items that directly embody storm elements. I've tried to pick out other more metaphysical aspects of storms. This ring represents renewal after a chaotic weather... The rainbow after the storm if you will.

In my defense, if I did not at least try to think of strange or unusual storm elements, then the competition would be without colour. The description of the shards screams: "sharp slab of metal, about sword size, that does lightning damage", so by banning weapon items outright (which I admittedly broke in my first submission) necessitates searching for more subtle effects.

Anyway, so you can judge for yourself whether this is a valid quest item, I've bent/broken these assumptions:

1) Assumption of descent: In my history I've said the shards didn't all fall at one time
2) Assumption of Purpose: In my history, I've said that earlier shards represented destructive aspects of the storm, constructive aspects fell in later shards
3) Assumption of singularity: This ring is composed of many tiny shards.
4) Assumption of aspect: This ring embodies the calm natural renewal after storms

However I think 1,2 and 3 are alright, you might have trouble accepting bend #4.

While what you say is a good solid poitn wildcorn, as I stated I voted on the submission as a whole not as a quest item. regardless whether this was for a quest or not. I put faith in the submission itself not in the fact it was a quest item.

Freetext

Khor are a monsterous and violent race. Within five years of being born, they grow to about half human size and are very, very inteligent. As they get older, they get larger... unfortunately they become less intelligent. After their adolecesence (about seven years), they grow to human size and are of a low human intelligence. As they age, they grow larger, slower, and stupider. Most of them end their lives 3 to 4 meters in height. Khor have been reported upto 10 meters tall, though those elder giant Khor do little but hit anything that disturbs them.

As they age they get larger, they don't seem to ever die of natural causes.